Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom a rá go bhfuil mo bhean chéile ag obair don Phost agus suas go dtí le déanaí, bhí mo dheartháir céile agus a bhean ag obair don Phost chomh maith. Mar sin, tá tuiscint éigin agam ar cad atá i gceist nuair atá daoine ag caint faoi sheachadadh nó bailiú an Phoist agus seachadadh litreacha timpeall na cathrach seo ach go háirithe. Tá sé rí-thábhachtach go ndéanfaimid cinnte de go mbeidh an tseirbhís seo fós ar fáil amach anseo. Tá dainséar mór ann dó, ach go háirithe toisc an t-athrú atá tar éis tarlú le deich mbliana anuas ach go háirithe. Ba léir go raibh sé ag tarlú fiú roimhe sin. Ach go háirithe toisc an idirlíon, le cúpla bliain anuas tá athrú suntasach thar cuimse tar éis teacht ar dhaoine ag scríobh litreacha agus daoine ag cur billí, nuachtán, leabhar agus a leithéid sa phost, ní hamháin in Éirinn ach thar lear.

Ní gá ach smaoineamh ar cad a tharla ag aimsir na Nollag. Cé mhéad daoine sa Teach a bhfuair téacs ag guí beannachtaí na féile orthu? Roimhe seo, bhí sé sin ar fad déanta i gcártaí Nollag agus cuireadh timpeall sa phost iad. Nuair a thoghadh mé ar dtús, bheadh an-chuid de na Teachtaí ag cur 2,000 nó 3,000 cárta Nollag amach ag gabháil beannachtaí na féile dóibh siúd a thogh iad. Níl sé sin ag tarlú ag an leibhéal sin a thuilleadh, seachas in áit nó dhó. Tá sé soiléir anois go bhfuil daoine tar éis athrú ar mhodhanna eile: an téacs, an ríomhphost, nó fiú fógra sa nuachtán áitiúil. Feictear go leor de sin. Dar ndóigh, déanann muid ar fad cártaí a chur chucu siúd atá gar dúinn, chuig gaolta agus cairde ag amanta áirithe. Ach, don chuid is mó, ní fheiceann mise go bhfuil an líon céanna cártaí - cártaí lá breithe, cártaí Nollag, cártaí Cásca nó cartaí ag amanta eile - á scríobh. Níl aon oiread céanna litreacha á scríobh. Ní hé nach bhfuil daoine ag déanamh comhfhreagrais lena chéile, ach níl siad á dhéanamh sa bhealach a rinne siad é deich nó 20 bliain ó shin nó le na céadta bliana anuas trí chóras poist éigin.

Tuigimid agus glacaimid leis go bhfuil gá le hathrú suntasach sa slí atá An Post rite agus sa slí a mbeidh an obair atá roimh An Post le déanamh amach anseo. Measaim nach féidir le haon chomhlacht leanúint ag sileadh airgid sa slí atá ag tarlú. Is léir ó na tuairiscí ar fad gur thuig siadsan a dhein na tuairiscí sin agus a dhein an fiosrúchán ar conas an Post a tharrtháil nó a shlánú go raibh fadhb ann. Is trua nach ndearna na Rialtais roimhe seo, ní an Rialtas seo nó an Rialtas deireanach fiú, ach b'fhéidir an ceann roimhe sin arís, gníomhú de réir an méid a bhí os ár gcomhair ag an am sin. Chuala mé roinnt de na Teachtaí níos luaithe ag rá gur chóir go mbeadh an Rialtas seo ag bogadh i dtreo an electronic fund transfer. Is cóir, ach ba chóir go ndéanfadh Rialtas Fhianna Fáil é chomh maith céanna tamall maith de bhlianta ó shin. Bhí mise ag ardú na ceiste sin tamall de bhlianta ó shin, chomh maith le Teachtaí eile sa Teach seo. An fhadhb a bhí ann ná nach raibh ceannaireacht an Phoist ag an am sásta bogadh sa treo sin agus fós tá an cuma air nach bhfuil siad sásta bogadh ar cheann de na mór-rudaí a chuideoidh leo i gcinneadh a dhéanamh ar fhéidireacht an Phoist maireachtáil nó gan mhaireachtáil.

If An Post cannot move on electronic fund transfers by facilitating all electronic financial transactions in the same way that banks and all other financial institutions can, the minor changes being introduced in the Bill, with which I do not agree, are doomed. Every other financial company, including a number owned by the State as a result of the financial crisis, is able to process financial transactions. EU directives prevent the Government from transferring all of its funds, whether grants to farmers or payments to social welfare recipients and community employment and Tús workers, through the postal service because the service does not have the facility to avail of this substantial wad of money which could be transferred through its system, obviously at some cost. This is a first and long overdue step that should have been taken, not by this Government or its predecessor, but much longer ago. If it were taken, a Government could take a decision to provide for all financial transactions other than international transactions to be made through the service delivered by An Post, a State company. This is an example of strategic thinking. This step would not involve a Government subsidy and, as such, it would not breach the EU rules on Government subsidies. It would be a commercial decision.

This scale of payment would be one way of keeping An Post afloat. The Irish Postmasters Union has been lobbying for this measure for a long time, especially during the term of the previous Government when the then Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, tried to move as many social welfare payments as possible from the postal service to the banking system. She blamed An Post and the European Union but was eventually persuaded by Deputies to back off on some of her proposed changes.

The Department went as far as to change the application form for social welfare payments such that the first port of call was to ask recipients if they had bank accounts and then at which post offices they wished to receive their payments. This showed the attitude at the time. This is a simple although costly move for An Post which could save it money and help it to diversify into areas that could sustain it.

There are challenges facing An Post. As I said, my wife works for An Post delivering post or in the registration office sorting post, depending on what duty she is on in a particular week. As such, I have an understanding of this matter. I also have a brother-in-law who delivers post in Rathmines and a brother whose wife sorts post in the mail centre on the Nangor Road. I am well aware of the collapse in the volumes of mail in recent years. The workers have taken the hit resulting from that decline. In Dublin, delivery routes have been almost doubled at this stage, albeit those who deliver the post have less post to deliver but they have to go further. What they have found very interesting in the past number of months in particular is the huge increase in the number of parcels they have to deliver because people are buying online. This post is more bulky. I heard Deputy Eamon Ryan and other speakers state we were missing an opportunity in this regard. We are missing a huge opportunity because An Post sold off Ireland On Line, IOL, in 1999. Despite the fact that the latter had made a profit every year since it was purchased by An Post, which was two years after it was founded in 1992, An Post sold it to Esat Digifone at the encouragement of then Minister, Deputy Lowry. That is in the past, but it shows that decisions made then undermined the future viability of An Post, the consequences of which we are suffering. I believe it is now too late for An Post to start competing for Internet services, but it can make strategic links with the companies delivering these services.

Increasing the price of stamps, as is proposed in this legislation, in the absence of any other action, is pointless and could be severely damaging to the company. If this action was attached to a timetable for delivery of the recommendations outstanding from the Grant Thornton report and the Bobby Kerr report, I could understand it. While it is a first step it is only one step because we do not have a guarantee in terms of when the other changes which may help might come about. When I worked in Bord na Gaeilge, part of my job was to ensure the mail was franked every day and then delivered to the post office for sorting. As the cost of postage increased, an instruction was given by the board, which was a State company, to reduce postage expenditure by using courier services for the delivery of post in the city. People will be aware of the huge increase in the number of courier services in recent years. I am sure that as postage charges increase most small companies that are struggling will look again at whether they should continue to avail of the services of An Post to have their leaflets, fliers and so on delivered. This is one of the areas wherein there is still a lot of post. If there is an increase in the cost of postage for magazines, regular monthly newsletters - known in An Post as "flats" - calendars, Argos catalogues and so on, which we all receive in the post, the companies involved will weigh up whether it is worth doing business with the An Post. People will remember phone books. The decision to no longer deliver them resulted in a loss of business for An Post. As I said, a number of services will transfer to other providers. Some companies are already gearing up for competition with An Post in terms of delivery, including CityPOST. Thankfully, although regrettably for many people who did not get their parcels for Christmas, Parcel Motel has struggled to compete with the postal service. It is a pity people did not stick with the services provided by An Post. Had they done so, it might have put some extra money into the company's coffers.

As stated, I do not believe increasing postage charges will stem the dwindling mail loads. The most logical port of call would have been for the Minister to first bring the other alternatives before this House and, if they did not work, to then increase the postage charge. A post office in my own area closed before Christmas. I have heard what other Deputies had to say about the closure of rural post offices. The same is happening in many small villages in Dublin. It is the elderly people who cannot get a bus to the next nearest post office and who are obliged to walk to it who are struggling, although the advantage in Dublin is that the next nearest post office will be only a mile away in most cases. However, it is still very traumatic for people when their local postmaster or postmistress retires and somebody else gets the contract. There is no logic to this when it is economically viable for stores such as Centra to take on the service. Many of these stores are willing to take on the service, yet licences are being transferred to other post offices.

People will continue to write letters into the future, although, perhaps, on a less frequent basis. I recall that 20 years ago people were talking about the demise of the print media. Most people still prefer to read the newspapers or books in paper format. The same will apply in terms of cash. People will still want cash. There are many places in the world where one can purchase services via a mobile phone. An Post needs to get real, and very quickly, in terms of how society is changing. The Government must instruct An Post to fast-track its proposals around electronic funds transfer. Had it done so already, we would not be here taking the lazy option of increasing postage charges as a first measure.

I mentioned the timeframe for other measures. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, will tell us the status of the other proposals and indicate when they will be brought before us and when they will be implemented, or if there is any difficulty around their implementation. I am not as familiar with what is happening in this regard as are Deputies who attended the committee yesterday. Perhaps there are practical reasons why these recommendations cannot be implemented. I cannot understand why in this day and age we are allowing a company like An Post to struggle in the context of the opportunities available in this area.

The cap introduced in 2011 was supposed to encourage An Post to make efficiencies and diversify. It has obviously failed to do this because we are here again seeking to increase the price of stamps without having taken all of the other steps proposed.

Part of the universal social charge obligation is the provision of a minimum service. It would be interesting if some community took a case in this regard because I presume part of the service is a post office. If the post office is not in existence, is An Post in breach of its universal service obligation? I remember Mr. Pat Cox saying way back how great the universal service obligation was in regard to telecommunications services because some rural area in Ireland took Telecom Eireann to task in Europe because the company had got rid of the telephone boxes, long before the mobile phones took over. The company was forced into not getting rid of them because their provision was part of the universal service obligation.

There is obviously a service obligation on An Post to deliver a minimum service. It is not just about the delivery of letters to one's door every single day. Years ago, there were two deliveries in this city every day, in addition to a delivery on a Saturday and a Sunday. People need to think about this. If An Post is going down the route of minimising and reducing the level of service, perhaps people could determine whether its doing so is contrary to the universal service obligation that the Government has signed it up to and enforced upon it. This obligation was a good idea, but at this stage An Post needs to live up to its commitment to the people.

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